Thoughts from the Day of Black Sun
by gena kumo
Summary: internal thoughts of Aang, the Duke, Haru, Teo, Sokka, Toph, Katara on Appa's back, then Zuko on his air balloon. Really tried to get all their individual characters down and display them well. occurs between day of black sun and the western air temple
1. Chapter 1 Voice on the Wind

**"Thoughts from the End of the Day of Black Sun"**

**I really wanted to know "what happens at the western air temple?" (cuz im syked about it!) so this thought came into my head "what if I tried to get what everyone was thinking on Appa while they flew away?"(Zuko in air balloon included) So I tried to get all of their real thoughts down on paper...here's what I got. No intentional shipping here, but Zutarians better avoid the first chapter, unless they can accept the way Aang thinks.**

**Note: This is not as long s it looks, it just has a lot of spaces and short thoughts.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters (but they are all brilliant), or the episode The Day of Black Sun part one and two. All of these ideas belong to fairycloud, so please do not copy. Thanks.**

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**Let us begin...**

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**"Voice upon the Wind"**

**Aang's view (With a little Appa and Momo action)**

The air bison shifted slightly under Aang at takeoff, seeming nearly reluctant to go into the air at all with so much extra weight. But Appa would never refuse to take the almost lightest boy on his back wherever he wished to go, especially since the boy had a tone of command in his "yip, yip" with none of his usual lightheartedness.

This strange urgency had happened only once since the tiny airbender had claimed the once little air bison as his own. When leaving the dark skinned man in the temple behind, Appa had needed no "yip, yip" to get him going, only a few anguished yet almost familiar words, "Appa, I have to go to save Katara!" from the boys distraught face, and Appa went to the skies.

So the huge lumbering beast simply groaned out a long grunt and blew a tuff of white fur out of his large eyes.

Momo, the active lemur, could sense this to in his master, and sat still for once on his haunches, crouched intently on Aang's rigid left shoulder, as if to pounce.

After a plan, or a route that had some sort of logic behind it, had occurred to the avatar, he had yelled back into the wind _"I know just the place where we'll be safe for a while," then paused, "The Western Air Temple."_

_Would they ever be truly safe again? _

Now Aang wallowed in serious thoughts. Occasionally he would caress patient Momo stiff upon his shoulder for support, then would dive back in, eyebrows thickly knitted together.

_Maybe if I close my eyes I will find a center to all these feelings and thoughts, a balance. Or only if I opened them, none of this would have happened. I have to know if this is nothing but a dream. _

Grey-hazel eyes flashed in the bright sun above the clouds with boyish expectancy, and he turned to see if everything had changed.

_No._

His determined shoulders sagged a little and Momo clung on for support as the airbender gazed, depressed, at the bison's passengers.

_We still have Haru, Teo, and the Duke with us, and I can't pretend we're just going on a picnic._

He grimaced.

_The battle did happen. They, Katara, and Sokka...they've left all the family they have (if Pipsqueak counts) behind in the firenation, and I failed them. _

His shoulders drooped all the more.

_I have failed everyone. _

Depression started to settle in, but Aang's sense of purpose warded most of it off into the clouds below to fall as dreary rain.

_I need a plan, not just a place to go. But I can't think of ANYTHING. And the comet is coming!_

It was the first time he had considered the problem of not just the fire lord, but the power filled comet that would come by summer's end.

_I need Sokka._

He looked back into the face under the wolf headdress and saw a similarly emotionally distraught face, the same face that was reflected on almost all the faces riding in the back.

The older, beardless boy took off the warriors wolf mask in silent frustration, showing his face to be a handsome olive brown in the piercing sun.

_But he hasn't spoken at all._

Sokka began to toss the wolf headgear back and forth softly and occasionally fiddled with his sword in its hilt to distract him.

_In fact no one has said anything this entire time._

Aang's eyes swept each face before he turned back towards the front.

_Yeah, sometimes I can come up with some pretty handy...and maybe slightly ingenious...ideas, but that's when I'm in tight spaces or quick moments. I'm not an army general or something! _

He threw his hands up in the air with a huge "Urrrrrrgh", then grabbed Appa's reins before they could fall off.

_Sokka's the one with strategies and battle plans, not me. _

His talent came at random times to his aid when he needed it, like the avatar state used to, but unlike the combined power of his previous selves, this trait was something he could call his own. It gave him a bit of an identity in the group.

What could he call it...

_Split second strategy?_

No, that sounded stupid.

_Quick thinking?_

That was it. A grin flashed in his open face.

Aang rarely had need or wanted to hide his emotions, except with Katara...

That made him want to look back again, even if just for a second, yet he was afraid what would meet his eyes if he did.

_Is she thinking about me too?_

Without thinking twice about it, he clutched at his stomach, because it seemed to be somersaulting.

Would she also be off in her own thoughts, her back turned towards him as her hair blew in the breeze?

Could she also feel the slight awkwardness...

He shuffled in his seat uncomfortably.

And incompleteness of the silence between them, even though she was several heads away?

_I sure do, even if she doesn't_

He rocked back and forth as his stomach began to do back flips and drop to his feet. There was also this tingle in the air, somehow attached to his spine, feeling like static electricity, but in some ways better than that...connecting him to Katara.

_Maybe it's just a guy thing._

He sighed and tried to ignore it, continuing with his thoughts.

Did she want to talk to him in her Katara-way, to bridge across the gap between them, or say what she had no time to say or do when he had left her, to confess that she felt the same way...

The feeling got worse, but it was a happy thought, all the same.

To kiss him back...

_Only if..._

A whole bunch of images and daydreams popped in his head. He sighed, his closed eyes full of wishing.

_...she had._

_But she kind of did._

He said resolutely to himself.

_I mean...she didn't pull away...did she?_

This did not help very much.

_Or..._

He winced.

...to push him away in unrequited love. More like waterbend him away. In a huge wave. You really didn't mess with Katara.

He put his hands on his head in horror, and then paused, rubbing it. He would have to get used to being bald again. Then he remembered that Katara had said she liked his hair...

_Maybe I shouldn't have cut it off..._

But the monk side of him banished that idea.

Or the deep, darkest, barely-even-thought-about, worst of his fantasies...

_That she would just wave up at me as she always does when I smile back at her... and the kiss...was just a dream. As if nothing had ever happened._

That was one thing he hoped he hadn't dreamed, but he highly suspected it all the same.

It felt like a bird had laid her eggs in a tangled nest made up of twisted odds and ends upon his heart.

But now after that one moment of bliss, it seemed like he had finally set the mama bird free to soar weightlessly, and the heavy nest had been whipped mostly away.

Now the baby birds, whose eggs had begun to hatch slowly quite some time ago (like when he had first laid eyes on Katara) were free to grow and develop at their own pace, unhidden from the world, and himself.

_Is this how young love is supposed to feel?_

He rested his hand on his cheek thoughtfully.

_Well, not so young, for a 112 year old. Almost 113, officially that is._

He sat up a little straighter, smiling widely.

Still, he was sure his little birds would have brilliant plumage and beautiful feathers, because that was the way he felt...as soon as he could show them to Katara.

_Maybe she does feel the same way, like there's a lot of fluttering birds in your heart and stomach, making it hard to breathe, to think, to even talk straight!_

He fell backwards with a "kerplop", sprawled out and staring at the sky, so he could think better.

It would be oh-so-satisfying or utterly devastating, or knock-you-off-your-feet surprising to hear how she felt, and oh, how he longed to!

He sighed in his imagined contentment of her voice, _her_ voice saying, three...no four clear words.

"_I love you Aang."_

And mean them, like he did.

_It's almost too good to even imagine._

He was a hopeless romantic at the moment. (Or a lovesick monkey, he couldn't tell or care.)

A question popped in his head.

_But what then?_

Pausing suddenly in his daydreaming, (And these days, his daydreams where almost always Katara-filled) he racked his brains for an answer.

_I'll...Marry her! At least, as soon as we're older, if I have to wait __**that**__ long..._

The idea clicked perfectly into his innocent sense of the natural order of things, so he accepted it gladly, dropping back onto the bison.

_I mean, what else would I do?_

He almost laughed to himself.

_If only girls weren't so complicated._

He sighed contentedly, settling his head lightly in his hands. If his chin felt a little stronger and more pronounced, like a man's should, in his open palms, he showed no sign of it. What he had noticed was...

_I've grown...__**4 INCHES**_

Katara had only grown one.

His chest was broader than it once was and...

_I'm a bit more muscular in my upper arms than Sokka is..._

He looked to his exposed right arm to check that it was.

_**Not**__ counting his main sword fighting arm. Must have been all that training..._

Grinning mischievously to the side he flexed slightly while holding the reins in a firm grip.

_I need to remember to challenge him to a left handed arm wrestling contest._

His concept on maturity was not only limited to that stuff.

_Like Sokka._

He looked to see him sharpening his sword...again.

_Sometimes._

Then he saw Sokka pat his sister to comfort her and let Toph hang on to his arm, and he smiled to himself.

He was also aware that he had grown as the Avatar to. When so much responsibility is put on one person, in his case, literally the whole world, they almost have to change. It aged him inside, and affected his actions to.

He was not the "goofy little kid on the ice burg anymore", like Katara had said. That kid had run from responsibility, but now, after all these adventures, he faced it head on.

_Maybe I have a little earthbender in me after all._

He looked back at Toph, and silently thanked her.

As a person, he had experienced joy, pain, anger, sadness, and love...he had lived...and that was partially what made him who he was. That iceberg had been a bubble, nothing to hurt him there, or to care for him. The real world outside was nothing like that. It meant constant exposure, and that shaped him.

_I am who I am._

And he was proud of that.

Unknown to him, he had jumped three well chosen steps ahead of himself, and his age, when he had kissed Katara just at the right moment, with just the right sincere "good-bye" words. She had noticed. Plus, they hadn't bonked noses.

Even buoyant thoughts like these could not completely lift his spirits.

_I will not, will never, forget._

The faces of those he had left for a firenation prison floated to join the images of the air nomads and all the other countless people he had been unable to help.

_But they're __not__ dead._

He shook his head in denial.

_They __won't__ die in a cell, because I will not..._

He was afraid to even think the word "fail".

_Let them down; let everyone down._

He clenched his fists.

_No, never again._

He grasped to feel his new staff firm in his hand.

_Because I will either save the world..._

Looking towards the now-empty lands of the people of the air, he held his blue glider even tighter.

_From Ozi and the firenation attacks..._

An image formed in his mind of a pale-skinned tawny-eyed expressionless man, haughtily proud, with a face not unlike Zuko's, and he shivered slightly.

_Or die trying._

He gritted his teeth.

_Even if I have to leave people I care about behind._

Then suddenly, he felt a tremor in his heart, calling him to go and grasp Katara to him and never **ever** let go.

_So that she would be safe._

Shaking his head, he tried to clear his thoughts, tried to think bravely.

_I can't let her distract me from what I must do._

He clenched his jaw even tighter and furrowed his eyebrows in concentration to try and stop the overwhelming feeling. He could not.

_I can't._

Moving his eyes with hesitance, inner longing and almost helplessness filled them and colored them hazel. He turned towards Katara.

_But I won't ever let her down._

His eyes found her tinted blue ones facing his.

_**EVER**_

They were open and inviting, framed by dark lashes and her face had an expression similar to the way he felt.

The corners of his mouth tilted heavenwards.

A bright assuring smile broke forth, seeming almost like a pure white light in the perfect, creamy, nut brown face.

And for that moment, to Aang, it was _the most beautiful thing in the world._

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This will be several chapters, all moving down the back of Appa in this order: Aang, the Duke, Haru, Teo, Sokka, Toph, Katara, then Zuko. (the ones most likely to be hard are Zuko (don't even go there), the Duke and Teo and Haru (since they are minor characters and don't talk much), then Sokka...so they will take a little while...but I will do them)

Next up is the Duke!


	2. Chapter 2 Treetop Twiddles

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these (ingenious) characters, or the episode The Day of Black Sun part one and two. (It's one of my favorites) These ideas belong to fairycloud22, so please do not copy.**

**Note: I need at least 30-40 reviews before I make the next chapter on Haru!**

**"Treetop Twiddles"**

**-really can't say it any other way-**

**The Duke's thoughts are twiddles; they hop around and don't usually connect.**

**But that is part of who he is**

Being thousands of feet in the air and having the firenation behind him did not change the fact that the Duke was an eight year old who was flying for the first time. Teeth chattering in the rushing wind, he hung on to the pointed front of the saddle for dear life with a monkey's grip.

Looking at the ruffled fur of the giant fluffy bison made him curious, so he leaned a little farther to try and get a look into the creatures face. Going closer and closer to the edge, his flapping too-big helmet began to slowly slide off. Scrambling to keep it from falling thousands of feet below, he grasped it with both little hands, and then suddenly looked down at the ground below him. Bad decision.

_We're so high..._

His head spun from dizziness; this was so much higher than he had ever been before.

_I can't believe that that watertribe girl, the guy with the sword, and the avatar do this every day!_

His enormous helmet, once back on his head, began to sway from the wooziness and air sickness.

_I can't believe I just left the firenation, and..._

His mouth turned down into a small boy's frown and his forehead creased with new worry.

_Pipsqueak_

The little Duke looked up to stare into the face of his gigantic friend.

_I will REALLY miss you._

But all there was above him was expanse and sky, no one to take him on broad shoulders, and to give off a laugh like thunder.

_And flying isn't fun._

Hugging around his knees the Duke stared off into space with the breeze in his face, not focusing really on anything.

_The nice girl...what was her name...Toph was wrong. Being in the air is much worse than the submarine._

He lurched in his seat, hanging his head between his small knees. His stomach swirled and gave off unhappy gurgles, so he slapped one hand on his face to hold in his breakfast, cheek and skin puffing out between his stubby fingers.

_At least I had Pipsqueak with me there...and it didn't move as much...I don't feel so good..._

Letting his memories flash pictures in his mind, he pretended he was in the trees again, so he would not get sick.

_The bark beneath me sure feels leathery._

With his beetle black eyes closed, he rubbed the saddle beneath him, frowning.

_But never mind._

Sitting up again, his helmet fell over his eyes, filling his wide nostrils with something that made him even sicker.

_The stench of Toph's BLEH is still there...I didn't wash it well enough._

Wrinkling his nose and eyes while sticking out his tongue, he waved it above his head to air it out, and then set it down beside him.

_Oops, hope I didn't hurt her feelings._

Glancing to look and see the expression in her glazed eyes, something occurred to him.

_She couldn't see me do that, could she? Cuz she's...blind._

He slapped his hand to his forehead at his stupidity, causing the boy with the mustache and green tunic to twist around at the sound of the crack.

The Duke waved embarrassedly with a guilty grin. The young man grunted, and then turned back away. The smile was wiped off Duke's face, and he sighed.

_I miss them._

Curling up to lean on his helmet, he slowly relaxed.

_Jet, Longshot, Smellerbee, the whole gang. It hasn't been the same since we split._

He let his thoughts wander back to times past. He could almost see himself asking Pipsqueak on the swaying metal boat...

_"Why did we ever leave?"_

The huge man had stopped laughing then, stooping over to be on the Duke's level. The wide mouth had stretched across into a sad sort of frown.

"_Always did what Jet said,"_

He had boomed quietly,

"_and Jet told us to starta new life for ourselves, so we did. Even if it was hard and even if it meant we had to separate. Hey, but you and me have had some great times together, right little guy?"_

Pipsqueak had noogied the Duke's helmeted head until he could hear clanging in his ears and his hat had tilted sideways. Then with a guffaw, he had scooped the littlest freedom fighter up, tossed him into the air and caught him.

With a whoosh, the Duke got the breath knocked out of him, but began to laugh as soon as he got it back. Then they had played hide in seek in the huge empty barrels to be filled with blasting jelly for hours on end.

Memories like these made him smile, and sleepy. His eyes drooped.

_Wonder if Jet and the others started a new life, like they said they would._

This thought made him a little more awake.

_Pipsqueak was all I had left of them, my only family._

He looked for a friendly face on the bison, and finally found the little blind girl.

_Toph reminds me of them; she has the same sorta grit. That means she is a good friend to have._

He smiled at her even though she couldn't see it.

_I've seen her in action today, and I think she's strong enough to defend **anybody**. She's small, like me, but inside, she's bigger than Pipsqueak!_

Also, she had the same familiar tongue-in-cheek remarks he had heard from Jet and Smellerbee, along with the watertribe boy who sat beside her, hunched over in thought. Toph had made no move to hold onto anything since the bison had taken off, she just sat there with her legs crossed, staring out into the landscape with misted eyes.

_She doesn't like flying either, so what is she goin to grab onto?_

After a long while, he glanced back to see if the little girl hadn't fallen off. The Duke could see her look sightlessly up at the hunched figure beside her, wait a moment, "look" again and turn to roughly take hold of the tall boy's arm.

_She's smart._

A grin spread out under/across the rim of the large helmet.

_If Pipsqueak wuz here, I would have done somethin like that, but...he isn't._

He had almost forgotten for a second that his jolly giant was not there to catch him. The Duke did not know any one well enough to latch onto, but he had a grip as strong as the funny lemur on the avatar's shoulder; so he wasn't bothered.

_I wonder if I'll ever get to hold 'is lemur? He sure makes alota wierd noises._

The lemur in question began to make a sound like the purring of a cat and another like a boinging bouncing ball. The Duke snickered, causing his laughter to echo in his metal helmet and ears.

Anyways, Toph was fine where she was with the warrior teenager. All the same, the Duke squinted through the wind to get a better glimpse at the tall boy who had directed some of the attacks in the fierce headdress of a wolf.

_'is face...it's like Jet's. He looks like-a leader._

The Duke tilted his head to the side, recognizing a similar determination, grit, and purpose in his expression, but without Jet's anger, just a little sadness and frustration.

_Probably since he left 'is dad behind._

The young man had been in their forest once, but he seemed a little taller now, and it had been different then.

_What Jet did seemed right then, but now I don't know if what we did with Jet was right or wrong. Jet said he would start a new life, but did he? Do me and Pipsqueak really wanna forget it all?_

Too many thoughts were cramming in one oversize helmet. The Duke clutched his hat, and took it off to empty it of its contents.

_I don't._

Glancing back at the two sitting side by side, he felt a little more thankful that he had some people to relate to, to help him not forget...the blind girl, the watertribe boy, even the guy in the weelchair, Teo, could explode all sorts of things, like peanuts, with him. He smirked briefly, then his face saddened.

_It's nice to have people like the freedom fighters, but for some reason, it makes me want to have my old friends back even more, especially Pipsqueak._

Trying to think of the future in a positive light, he wondered what he would tell Pipsqueak about his adventures.

_This Western Air Temple thing sound cool..._

He smiled in a smallish way.

_...and it will be way up high...like our tree houses..._

Grinning at the thought, he yawned, then started to doze off on his helmet...letting his memories wash over him.

Then the Duke forgot that he was flying, and fell fast asleep...seeing the light above him flicker green, like he was underneath the intertwining branches of many trees.

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for any pronoun confusion, in Duke language _'is His_

Now here comes Haru, (Horray, Harrah, Haru!!!!- inside joke with my little sister) mostache and all.


	3. NOT quite finished with author note

"What Haru Wanted"

Sorry that this is taking so long!

Major grades/finals just came up.

I did start some of the other chapters, but having writers block on this one.

I will have it in this weekend

(And finish them all before "The Western Air Temple" comes out in the United States)

Thanks for waiting! (Hope no one opened this expecting the chapter…oops! )


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